


acquired taste

by sylphh (icelandicc)



Category: Tales of the Abyss
Genre: Fluff, Gen, if you can't kill the enemy, make him your friend
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-29
Updated: 2017-07-29
Packaged: 2018-12-08 07:19:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11641680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icelandicc/pseuds/sylphh
Summary: “It looks good.” Luke seemed to have gotten over his annoyance about the bruises.





	acquired taste

It was for Natalia, Asch told himself. And if it was for Natalia, it didn’t matter what the others thought about it. Especially not that  _ dreck _ . Just the thought of that idiot laughing his head off was enough to make Asch seethe.

He angrily flung a wooden spoon into the sink after he finished mixing the batter and smoothed down his apron with a long-suffering sigh.

As if on command, Luke poked his head into the doorway, wide-eyed and wondering.

“Hey, um, Asch? Guy told me you’d be here. What are you-“

“Shut. Up.” Asch grit his teeth. “I can’t _ stand _ your voice.”

There was a moment of silence.

_ Wouldn’t… that mean he hated his own voice? _

Luke chose to voice his thoughts. “Wouldn’t-

“I know what you’re thinking. Don’t you dare say it.” Asch growled, sliding the pie tin into the oven.

Luke decided that he didn’t want to die prematurely and promptly shut his mouth. He hovered around in the doorway for a few silent minutes more, watching Asch open the cupboard and stare up at the uppermost shelf in annoyance, before stepping gingerly into the room, as if crossing an invisible threshold that screamed “DANGER! DANGER!”

“So, um, I was wondering if, you know, if I could…” he trailed off, rubbing the back of his head. Asch stopped what he was doing to stare pointedly at Luke, daring him to say something stupid. “..if I could… help? You at all?” He finally finished.

“With what.” Asch deadpanned.

“Um, whatever you need help with, I guess?” Luke tried nervously, avoiding Asch’s intense stare. “S-sorry, Guy just said that maybe it’d be good for me to-“

“ _ Stop _ apologizing. It drives me insane.” Asch growled, going back to looking for a subtle way to reach the plates on the top shelf without blatantly looking like he was too short.

“Oh, sorry- er, okay…  sorry.” Luke sighed in defeat and inspected the floor with feigned interest.

Some more silence. It seemed like they were fated to either argue heatedly, or suffer in smothering quietness.

The plates in the cupboard glistened mockingly, and Asch looked at them with as close to a glare as you could get when dealing with dishware. Asch knew what he had to do, but that didn’t mean he had to like it.

“Replica, come here for a second.” Luke thought he was hearing something wrong, but stepped forward to Asch’s side regardless. Asch leaned down and, much to Luke’s apparent shock, wrapped his arms around Luke’s waist and hefted him up to top-shelf-level. Luke made a little noise of surprise (Asch secretly hated that he was capable of making those sorts of cutesy noises) and tensed up automatically. Asch bit back a laugh, scoffing at him instead.

“Get a plate. One of the big ones. Ceramic.” Luke took a second to process the request, but nodded and tentatively grabbed one off the shelf. Asch took a small step back and placed Luke back on his feet. Luke shakily set the plate down on the counter, and sighed.

“I thought I was gonna  _ die. _ ”

“Are you saying you didn’t trust me to keep you up?”

“Honestly, I was more worried about what would happen if you  _ did _ keep me up.” Luke lifted the hem of his jacket with a little frown. He pointed at his side with an expression not dissimilar to that of an angry teddy bear.

“Look! It’s bruising!” Asch raised an eyebrow, before jumping a little at the  _ BEEP BEEP _ of the oven. He hastily shoved oven mitts onto his hands and threw open the oven door, snatching the pie off the rack and gently setting it down on the plate. He shut the oven door, leaving it open a crack to air out, and slid off his oven mitts, grabbing a bread knife out of the drawer and placing it next to the pie. Almost as an afterthought, he set a fork down next to it, along with a tea plate. He smiled to himself in satisfaction. He could almost see her face, her radiant smile and her bright eyes and her sweet laugh and her-

“It looks good.” Luke seemed to have gotten over his annoyance about the bruises. But he’d interrupted Asch’s daydreaming, so he was still irritating as far as Asch was concerned; never mind that he’d complimented his baking.

“It'd better. I spent all afternoon on this.” He lifted the plate and prepared to leave. Luke blinked for a second, before the realization hit him.

“Oh! Um, Asch? Thank you.”

“What for?” Asch turned around.

“For letting me help you!” Luke’s smile was so genuine and innocent and sickeningly trustful it made Asch’s words stick in his throat like glue. He swallowed around them.

“Whatever. If you want to help more, clean up the kitchen.” He managed, turning once more and heading out of the room. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Luke begin to wipe down the counters.


End file.
